By Patrick M. O’Connell
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Copyright 2007 St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
ST. LOUIS, Mo. — With controversy lingering over a report on the most recent deaths of St. Louis firefighters, city officials gathered Thursday at a ceremony to honor all 165 fallen members of the department.
“We promise not to forget their sacrifices and the sacrifices and suffering of their families, and we have not,” Fire Chief Sherman George declared in a speech.
Under a tent pitched beneath a sullen sky in Poelker Park, across Market Street from City Hall, five firefighters shared the duties of reading the names of their lost brethren. George and Mayor Francis Slay later laid a wreath at the foot of a monument there.
Among the names were Derek Martin and Robert Morrison, both 38, of Rescue Squad 1, who died five years before - May 3, 2002 - in a blaze at Gravois Refrigeration, 2241 Gravois Avenue.
Their widows and children attended the program.
Afterward, Chief George declined to answer questions. He has been criticized by the firefighters union for not distributing, even to rank-and-file members, a report on what went wrong the night Martin and Morrison died.
Public Safety Director Sam Simon said after the ceremony that he had been “under the impression that (the distribution) already happened.” He said he would talk with George about how the report should shape changes in training.
“It doesn’t feel like lessons are being brought out,” Simon said.
Simon, who is George’s boss, also said department officials need to do a better job of reaching out to employees who believe it has not been forthcoming about the deaths.
In 2004, the Post-Dispatch reported specific criticisms of communications and firefighting tactics contained in a draft report that are essentially unchanged in a final version obtained this week.
One of the widows has collected a financial settlement from the maker of some of the protective gear her husband wore, and the other widow’s suit is pending.
Angela Martin, the widow of Derek Martin and whose suit is pending, said: “I do feel you can learn from your mistakes, but it doesn’t matter to us because we don’t have our husbands. There’s no dad in the stands for sports events, no dads at graduation. In the end, it doesn’t matter.”